AURORA – Naperville Central received a huge blow when a red card was levied against senior defender Cameron Strang early in the second half of Tuesday’s DuPage Valley Conference game at Waubonsie Valley.

It was the kind of thing that could’ve drastically hurt the Redhawks, but instead it served as their rallying cry. The team responded with a pair of goals to break a tie and earn a hard-fought 4-2 victory.

“As we were bringing the kids in, we talked about how you’ve got to go as hard as you can and work at 110 (percent) for that one player that we’re missing,” Redhawks coach Troy Adams said. “I think we did a good job of it.”

Adams is known for gathering the entire program and reminding them what it means to be a Redhawk and the need to play for your teammates and for the team.

“There’s a couple times of the year where we bring in all the guys, and this year we’re reading the book “Make Your Bed,” (written by Admiral William H. McRaven, a retired U.S. Navy Seal who commanded at every level of his 37-year career). It’s from the Navy Seal perspective.

“There are days where you’re training and not at 100 percent,” Adams continued. “And the guy who is on your boat paddles a little harder; the guy that’s helping you runs a little faster for you. And that’s what we had to do here. You’ve got to play a little bit more than what you played before.”

Strang put the Redhawks ahead with 10 minutes remaining in the first half, but the Warriors answered with 2:37 before halftime on an unassisted goal from Diego Carrillo.

“Finn (Wolfe) created a couple opportunities in the first half simply by working harder than anybody, and Anthony (Saavedra) probably played his best game today and the rest of them always work hard,” Adams said, “Roman (Krupka) and Rohan (Bhargava), I can always count on them to always work as hard as possible.”

Halftime took a strange turn as some of the lights went out during the break and didn’t come back on right away. Some, in fact, didn’t come on at all. After an approximately 20-minute delay the officials and coaches deemed that the conditions were still playable and the second half commenced.

Bhargava assisted Wolfe just 2:31 into the second half to give the Redhawks a 2-1 lead, but it was short-lived. Carrillo scored for the second time just 34 seconds later to make it 2-2.

“That made us do something which we haven’t done a lot of, which is attack the goal and know that we have to score more,” Adams said. “There were some things that we were disappointed with, but as a whole this was a good example of making adjustments on the field during real time and understanding that work rate, and work rate is going to make us win or lose.”

This time it helped them win with Owen Jarrell connecting with 26:24 remaining in the game when he suddenly got wide-eyed after seeing the net unmanned.

“I saw that their keeper miscleared it and knew it was my chance with a wide open goal,” Jarrell said. “I knew I didn’t have to hit it hard. I just had to curl it in straight.”

It was Jarrell’s third goal of the season. The game-winning goal scorer was named Chicagoland Soccer Man of the Match.

“When we got that unfortunate red card, we knew we had to pick it up,” he said. “I think that made a big difference. The team had that drive in us to get that win after giving up those two goals.”

Not that it came easily, especially playing a man down, and that man being Strang.

“It was tough because when our centerback goes out like that and our defense is making some mistakes, it’s tough to come back,” Jarrell said. “But we had to play through it and can’t let circumstances like that let you down. Cam is such a huge part of our offense and our defense, and losing him was tough. But we were able to pick up the slack.”

Erik Hojsak was one of the many who stepped in and helped fill the void created by Strang’s absence.

He’s as new as they come this year. The senior, who joined the team only a couple of weeks ago, is from Slovakia. Actually, Hojsak was born in Chicago but moved to Slovakia when he was just four years old. A couple of weeks ago he returned to the states for the first time since then. On Tuesday, he scored his first high school goal on an assist from Krupka with 16:47 left in the game to give Naperville Central some room to breathe with its final two-goal lead.

“I basically play center mid, but we got the red card so coach moved me into the left side,” Hojsak said. “I just ran in toward the middle and just got a great ball, and I got lucky I guess. This was my first goal so it’s a nice moment.”

Hojsak said he feels welcome at Naperville Central and is driven to succeed at the game.

“I came here because of soccer, and I want to go to college,” he said. “It’s my dream to become a soccer player. I just met these guys two weeks ago, so I’m just getting to know them. They’re really cool guys.”

As Hosjak adjusts to life as an American high school student, the Redhawks showed they could switch up when changes happen in a game.

“To the players' credit, it was a good adjustment on the fly to not just play down a player, but also having to shift formation, shift responsibility of what we’re doing," said Adams. "We did a good job of understanding it and realizing this is not what we normally do, but we have to adjust to the game.”

Last year, the Redhawks beat the Warriors, 4-1, but scored three goals in the first half, including Robert Comer’s first ever as a Redhawk. Strang, Zack Kokes and Nate Zain also scored in that victory. This time, the Redhawks erupted in the second half with three goals with Hosjak scoring for the first time.

“I felt it was a well-balanced game for both teams,” Warriors coach Jose Garcia said. “Central is a talented team who fought to the end. We made some errors, which is to be expected when we have such a young team.

“We are learning from those mistakes and correcting them as we go along. We have improved tremendously since the beginning of the season. We are gaining confidence as individual players and as a team. I was proud of Diego Carrillo for scoring his first two goals as a varsity player.”